The Holes in our Hearts
by Mountainsunrise
Summary: Mai is receiving warnings from Gene about the case Naru has accepted. But what happens when the thing they are hunting is strong. Maybe even too strong for Naru to protect Mai from. Will Mai discover the secret inside her memories before all is lost?
1. Another Restless Night

The Holes in our Hearts

Chapter 1: Another Restless Night

Mai Taniyama woke up from her dream with one word on her lips, "Empty…". Already the details of the dream Gene had showed her were fading into the dark place of her mind where the bad memories she never wanted to access lived. "I guess it mustn't have been that important," Mai said to herself, "Usually when the dream is important I can't get it out of my head. But I just can't shake the feeling that something's wrong."

While mumbling to herself, Mai stretched and glanced at the clock. "7:30?!" Mai yelled flailing as she tried to escape the warm cocoon of her bed. She was late for work and, knowing her narcissistic boss, she would have hell to pay for it when she finally reached the office. Cursing herself under her breath for the longest time, Mai ran frantically around her apartment trying to get herself in order. She was out the door in seven minutes flat and just had to run to catch the train down to Shibuya Psychic Research.

She ran up the stairs and flung open the door to the office at 8:11. Since she was supposed to be there at eight, and considering how long she had over-slept, Mai considered that to be a great accomplishment.

Her boss, however, did not. As soon as he heard Mai's uneven steps on the stairs Kazuya "Naru" Shibuya opened the door to his office and proceeded to lean against the frame with his expressionless gaze turned straight at the door. As soon as Mai opened the door he did not hesitate with his, "Mai, you're late. I pay you to show up to work on time and to do the jobs I assign you. I don't remember ever giving you an order to be late. Now, Mai, TEA!" With that the narcissistic Naru turned and slammed the door of his office shut again.

Mai, her hand still on the door knob, stood there realizing just how lucky she had been. If she had waited any later to get up there, her boss would have gone into serious tea withdrawal and she would have had to spend the rest of the day making twice as much tea in compensation. Recalling earlier days when she had arrived far later, Mai remembered how cranky Naru could be in the morning if he hadn't had his tea. Sighing to herself, Mai walked over to her desk and dropped off her bag and coat before going straight to the kitchen to set the kettle to boil.

That poor kettle had heated up so much water in its time that the edges had been worn smooth by the constant hot water being poured in and out. On instinct Mai pulled out three tea mugs and set about making the blend Naru appeared to have become addicted to. As the kettle began to whistle, Mai began making the tea trying to remember how she had gotten into trouble so early in the morning.

'Oh right, it was that stupid dream' Mai thought to herself. 'I just wish I could remember what was in it that's making me feel so worried.' The more she thought about it, Mai seemed to be able to capture the fading thoughts of her dream. Just as she brought the face of the man who had been the center of the dreams attention, Mia's knees buckled unexpectedly. Without warning, a voice started screaming, "Gone, it's all gone. Empty. Empty! EMPTY!"

Then just as suddenly, the voice stopped and Mai found herself on the ground with a cut on her knee from bashing it on the table on the way down. Unfortunately for her she had been holding a cup of tea when the fall began and it had splashed all over her hand on the way down. She gasped at the pain of the burn and was about to see to it before she heard, "MAI, I'M NOT GOING TO ASK TO MY TEA AGAIN!" Knowing Naru would not wait any longer; Mai picked herself up off the ground and went to bring him his tea.

She knocked and then opened the door to her boss's office. Everything was in pristine order, except for the guy dressed in black that was seated at the desk. His eyes looked slightly feverish and kept shifting about until they landed on the cup of tea Mai was holding. As soon as she set it down on his desk, Naru took a long drink and almost instantly the sanity returned to his eyes.

Mai waited by the corner of his desk as she always did, waiting for Naru to bark some other order or give her another reprimand for not being fast enough with his tea.

"We have a client coming today Mai. This is a pretty weird case and I'm going to need the whole team for this. Please call them all here and let John know to book a plane to Japan for as soon as possible. And wash that ridiculous marker off your hand!"

"Naru, there is no marker on my hand." Mai remarked, with genuine surprise in her eyes. She knew her boss was observant, but now she honestly had to wonder if half the stuff he observed was even there to begin with.

"Look at you right hand," he said with a trace of annoyance in his voice.

Mai looked at the appendage in question and gasped when she saw that the burn from the tea spill earlier had burned the word _empty_ onto her hand in a blister. 'That word is everywhere today. Something's beginning to tell me this is more than just a mere coincidence,' Mai thought as she looked at her hand in wonder. Realizing that Naru was growing more annoyed waiting for her answer by the second, Mai quickly said, "Of course Naru. I will make the needed arrangements and tend to my hand. I must have forgotten to scrub the marker off last night when I got home." She didn't know why she felt compelled to lie to Naru, but the thought was gone from her mind as soon as it had come.

With that, Mai left the office with her tea tray in tow, leaving behind a slightly confused Naru. When she had answered she showed no inclination of knowing about marker on her skin. Then after looking at it Naru could have sworn that she paled a little. Naru pushed the thought out of his mind a chose to focus instead on the tea in front of him while it was still hot.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of its characters. They all belong to their respective owners. **

**Hello everyone. This is my first try at a Ghost Hunt fanfiction and a chapter story too. I hope that it read okay. Please let me know if I have forgotten anything or if there is anything else you have to say. Reviews are always welcome. Thanks for reading. Look for the next installment within the week.**


	2. A Girl and A Boy

The Holes in our Hearts

Chapter 2: The Girl Who Followed Her Heart, and the Boy Who Hid His Away

After she left Naru's office, Mai headed straight for the closet. She was looking for the first aid kit to see if there was something she could do about her hand. Despite having told Naru that it was marker, Mai knew it was really the burn from the tea she had spilled earlier. As she searched for the first aid kit Naru had insisted they buy when she managed to cut herself ten times in one week just doing her daily chores, Mai contemplated why she had been holding things back from Naru. After all, she trusted him, right? He was her boss. The man that had given her life more of a meaning than it had ever had.

After Mai lost her parents she had just been going about living her life on a daily basis. In truth she had nothing left to live for. She went through the day-to-day activities because there was nothing more she could do. She was a young girl who had lost her parents and her purpose to live. Mai always remembered that her mother would tell her, "Mai, no matter what you always have to have something to live for. Whether that reason is to say you survived another day on this planet or simply to accomplish one more trivial task, you have to have something to live for."

Mai's mother told her that the day before she died. When the topic first came up, Mai didn't know what to do. She was a young girl and had no knowledge of what she should do with her life. All Mai knew was that she wanted to be different. She didn't want to be that person that was born, went to school, got a job, married, had some children, and then died. She wanted her life to mean more than that. She wanted to stop the people on the street that were walking around like stupid idiots not even trying to do something with their lives and shake them until they could see the world in a new way.

That was when Mai decided what she wanted to live for. She wanted to live each day for the chance to see another one and make someone's life a little bit better while doing it. The next day, her parents both died in a horrible accident. She had no family, and the people in the world that had meant the most to her were gone. She was alone with no one except her friends from school and a social services program that saw her as a loose end that needed to be tied up in foster care.

After the accident, Mai played evasion. She made herself the perfect child so that the officials would leave her alone. How could they expect her to go to another family when she had experienced the perfect thing? It was like showing a man Heaven and then saying he had to go on living on Earth after being able to see perfection. So Mai learned. She learned how to fool the adults with a well placed chipper smile. She learned how to be her own person and rely on no one but herself. Sure she still had friends, but she would never depend on them for anything more than companionship.

That was, until she had met Naru and the entire SPR crew that had changed everything. Now she had people around her that she could trust. They had provided her with the one thing she could never find for herself. They gave her a family. Sure each member had their own little quirks, but isn't that part of what makes every family feel closer together? Naru in particular, he seemed like the quirkiest of them all. He brought out the best and the worst in her. In fact, even after having just met him, he had brought out more life in her since her parents' death than all the years of grieving and moving on ever could. He was her spark and Mai just wished he would trust her more.

Mai knew Naru thought she was stupid, but she was a lot smarter than he gave her credit for. There were times she had caught "the look" coming off of him. When he thought no one was watching, and usually he was right, he would get a far off look in his eyes and that mask that seemed to be forever frozen in place would slip. It was then that Mai would see something she knew far too well. Naru's eyes held the same sadness her held after her parents had died. Even to this day, she could still look in the mirror and see that look from time to time.

Mai wished that she could be a source of comfort for her boss. Not as a simple distraction, (despite being hopelessly attracted to him, Mai cared about being there as a friend for him if that was what he needed) but as a person he could relate to. She knew the story of how he lost Gene, and she also knew how no matter how many people tried to replace Gene is his life, they would never be anything compared to the twin brother Naru had obviously loved very dearly.

He cared so much that it seemed to Mai that he had buried the part of himself that had in order to never be hurt again. After he lost Gene, Naru must have taken the parts of himself that could truly empathize with another human being and buried them in an impenetrable fort inside his mind. Mai often wondered if he could even access it any more. Then she remembered the few times he had smiled at her with a genuine smile that could only come from someone who cared and was, at least subconsciously, looking for someone to relate to. Those smiles were always what made Mai's day. In fact, the more time she spent around her narcissistic boss and got to know the compassionate side of him, the more she found herself opening to the world again.

As these thoughts wiggled around in her head Mai took the first aid kit out of the closet and headed to the bathroom. She found a bandage that matched her skin close enough that the word would be covered and hopefully not be blatantly obvious to the over-observant Naru. She finished wrapping her hand and headed back out to the office. She had a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it. She still had to clean up the mess in the kitchen from earlier and make the calls Naru had requested.

With speed admirable to any assistant Mai placed the needed calls to her fellow team members and then headed to the kitchen to clean up the mess. It was then that she remembered what had caused the fall to happen in the first place. It was that screaming, someone shouting about how something was empty. "Now I know I'm going crazy," Mai mussed to herself as she wiped up the spilled beverage. Once she had finished she sat down on the floor to think things over. The few memories of the dream that she had, the flashbacks, the shouting, the urge to lie to Naru, and most disturbing of all, the word that kept popping up. "Empty," Mai mused allowed, "I wonder what could be so important about such a small word."

With that thought voiced, Mai allowed her head to drop as she succumbed to a deep sleep where hopefully some of her questions could be answered.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of the characters that make up this wonderful story line. I'm just tinkering with them to entertain myself and hopefully a few others. **


	3. A Battle of Dreams

The Holes in our Hearts

Chapter 3: A Battle of Dreams

Mai was floating in darkness. She couldn't see anything: just the darkness. There was nothing to touch, no sound to hear, nothing to smell or taste, and nothing to look at. There was just the darkness. So, floating amongst the darkness, Mai waited. She didn't think or try to solve any problems. What was the point anyway if she was just left in darkness?

Then, ever so softly, a voice began calling to Mai. "Mai, please, you have to listen. Please come back to me." That voice, one Mai thought she should be familiar with, repeated the line like a mantra until it consumed Mai's dark little world. It seemed like the words would never stop. But Mai didn't move to find the source of the words. Instead she waited. Nothing else could happen to cause her pain if she just waited.

Then a flash of bright light appeared. Out of its cascading brilliance a hand reached out and grabbed hold of Mai. It pulled her out of the darkness and into a never ending maze of sensations. Suddenly there was so much to look at and so many things Mai realized she couldn't do if she just sat around waiting. Looking around she finally set eyes on the one who had pulled her from the darkness. She was greeted by the sight of a young man clad all in black with a far-away look in his eyes. "Naru!" Mai called, excited to see him again. But as the boy turned she could tell that it was not the twin she was always looking for. Rather, it was Gene.

"Oops, sorry Gene."

"It's okay Mai. Are you alright now? I was looking for you for so long. You feel asleep almost a day ago and where stuck in the darkness ever since"

"I was?" Mai whispered. She knew that the time she had spent in the darkness had felt like a long time but she had thought it was just an hour not a full day.

"Yeah. Mai, something's going on. This isn't just the world of the spirits anymore. There is something powerful that has come. I was only barely able to get you out of its clutches. You have to listen to me. I don't know what this thing is, but it doesn't want me to show you anything about the case that idiot scientist brother of mine has taken. You don't even remember the dream from last time do you?"

"No Gene, I don't. It's really starting to worry me. The only thing I can remember is one word. Empty." As soon as the word left Mai's lips, the world around the two began to shake. The spiritual pressure that was enveloping was almost unbearable. It forced Mai and Gene both to their knees until the point where they could hardly move.

"Mai, whatever is blocking your memories is coming. You have to wake up now! Listen carefully, you can't come here anymore. At least not until I know what this is. Tell Naru you are not to be left alone under any circumstances! Do you understand?"

Mai was barely able to nod her understanding before she felt the familiar tug back into consciousness. Her last sight was of Gene forcing himself up into a warrior's stance as he turned to face the thing that had blocked her memories from her.

"She's been out almost a full day Noll, shouldn't we take her to the hospital."

"Why do that Lin? Can't you tell she's already waking up?"

Mai slowly pried open her eyes despite the fact that they felt like they had been cemented shut. As she stirred she looked around and saw she was on the couch in the lobby of SPR. A small groan escaped her as she forced herself to sit up until she was looking into two very blue and very concerned eyes.

"Are you alright Mai?" Naru asked. Was it Mai's imagination or did he look just the tiniest bit relieved?

"Naru. What happened? The last thing I remember I was cleaning up in the kitchen."

"We were hoping you could tell us. You never answered when we called so we went to check on you. We found you asleep in the kitchen. The only problem was that we couldn't wake you up for anything in the world. Then about ten minutes ago you started hollering. Screaming over and over again, "It's empty. Empty. EMPTY!" That's when we started to think it wasn't just your natural cat napping nature coming out in full force."

"I don't know. Wait. I saw something. Another dream. I had one last night too, but I can't remember what it was about. The only thing I know is that word. It's everywhere…" Mai let her sentence fade away as she tried to remember what her last dream was about.

Naru and Lin watched as Mai closed her eyes trying to remember. All of a sudden the color faded out of her face. Mai saw a quick snippet of her dream with Gene.

"Naru, Gene said I can't go see him anymore. You have to make sure that I'm never alone!"

It was only after that when Mai realized she had just screamed that at him. Now Naru was looking at her with a great amount of concern. Either that or Mai was or delusional than she already thought.

"Okay Mai. It's obvious this has something to do with our new case. The dreams and your amnesia only started after I accepted it. John should be arriving here in Japan by tomorrow. After that, the rest of the team will join us within the week. We are scheduled to meet the client in a week. I had to reschedule the first meeting since you collapsed."

"Alright Naru, in the mean time what am I going to do? According to Gene I can't be left alone. I live alone Naru!"

"You will come stay with me. Lin is currently experiencing plumbing issues."

Mai could feel her cheeks turning red at the thought of being alone in an apartment with her boss. "Are you sure Naru? I wouldn't want to impose on you."

"Don't be ridiculous Mai. If Gene says you can't be left alone then so be it. Besides, I fully expect you to be on call to make tea whenever it is needed while you are staying with me." With that Naru walked back into his office with a smirk lightly playing across his features at the thought of having access to the tea he loved so much twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.


End file.
